RFC 3448 (rfc3448) - Page 1 of 24
TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC): Protocol Specification
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group M. Handley
Request for Comments: 3448 S. Floyd
Category: Standards Track ICIR
J. Padhye
Microsoft
J. Widmer
University of Mannheim
January 2003
TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC):
Protocol Specification
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
This document specifies TCP-Friendly Rate Control (TFRC). TFRC is a
congestion control mechanism for unicast flows operating in a best-
effort Internet environment. It is reasonably fair when competing
for bandwidth with TCP flows, but has a much lower variation of
throughput over time compared with TCP, making it more suitable for
applications such as telephony or streaming media where a relatively
smooth sending rate is of importance.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
2. Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. Protocol Mechanism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3.1. TCP Throughput Equation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.2. Packet Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.1. Data Packets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.2.2. Feedback Packets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4. Data Sender Protocol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
4.1. Measuring the Packet Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
4.2. Sender Initialization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Handley, et. al. Standards Track
